Teaching Character #2: The Power of "Yet" and The Metaphor of My Left Hand

Week 2, Micro-Moments, was really helpful in my homeschooling. It made my "teachable moments" so much more deliberate:

B: I think I'll remove the arrows in my Amusement Park map.
Me: Why?
B: Because there are labels for each ride, anyway.
Me: I think you did a good job of putting arrows in your map [constructive responding].
B: It really helps?
Me: Yes, it does. It helps the user of the map know where to go after one ride. I really like the effort you put into the map [growth mindset]. Putting the arrows in shows a good strategy for helping someone go over your project [growth mindset]. I think you're still capable of doing a better map by making it more colorful and attractive [critical feedback].
B: Okay, Mama, I'll keep working on it. [character behavior language: grit].
Me: That's great!

I was really excited to explore the power of "yet" in the Engage section of Week 2 ("I don't know how to do that...yet"). The two exercises I chose were:
1) Doing a mail merge on MS Excel
2) Sign my name with my left hand

The first one was relatively easy to learn. It was the second exercise that really fascinated me.

Here's my first attempt.

Practice #1: Shaky start

I researched right away and I found a Wikihow post that looked really helpful. The link is here. The first thing I did was create dotted lines of the alphabet (lower and upper case) and I tried tracing the lines. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Below my attempt is my own daughter's handwriting after she saw how much hard work I was putting into the exercise. I observed that my own persistence rubbed off on my kids and they started writing exercises on their own.

Here's my second attempt:

Practice #2: Included shapes

This time, aside from writing the alphabet, I added some shapes to trace. I thought I showed some progress. I remembered that line from the video where Dr. Carol Dweck says, "This is hard. This is fun!" I had a thought: I must be growing.

Practice #3: Tracing and Coloring

After tracing basic shapes and practicing letters, I graduated to tracing my right hand (apparently, pushing the pen/ pencil against 3-D contours will help guide the left hand). I also tried coloring in shape with my son's crayon. The result: not bad!

Practice #4: Sentences

I then started to write real sentences (I used "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" because it uses all the letters of the alphabet. I started to get the hang of it.

Practice # 5: Copying a paragraph

Using my son's science book, I started copying a whole paragraph. This was hard work. You can see from the picture that towards the end of the page, I was already struggling (my handwriting is starting to get shakier!).

Practice #6: Original poetry

My last practice I consider the opus of my left hand exercise.

Here's the text:

Left Hand
This poem was handwritten with
my left hand, a literal exercise in
a different frame of mind.
Each line trembles even when I
know where it is supposed to go.
It has nothing to do with my steadfast
will or body of knowledge -- only muscles
now,  muscles and time.
###

My left hand became the metaphor for my own growth mindset. Anything can be learned. Anything can be mastered. But the other half of will (and capability) is the work itself. There is no replacement for the work that needs to be done.

This was a really valuable exercise for me. It put me in the shoes of my own kids (and students). Writing (as in literal writing with one's hand) is hard work. It's not something that comes to you overnight. It needs practice. It needs time. And there's no going around it. "Yet" is a powerful word. It provides optimism and reassures you of future capability. That's something I'd like to inculcate in my kids.

Note: I am taking a 4-week class called Teaching Character and Creating Positive Classrooms (offered by Relay Graduate School of Education via Coursera.org) as part of my endeavors to enrich my homeschooling experience. 

ModPo 2013 #1 To Those Who Are Invited: On Dickinson's "I dwell in Possibility"

From Sony Pictures

Note: I am currently taking a course on Coursera.org called Modern and Contemporary American Poetry taught by Al Filreis of the University of Pennsylvania. I will be posting my thoughts on the course discussions here.

I dwell in Possibility – (466)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

Reprinted electronically by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983, 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson Edited by R. W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999)

I thoroughly enjoyed the video discussion of "I dwell in Possibility." I've missed this kind of discussion of poetry for a long time.

While I loved the close reading of each line, I particularly liked the emphasis on whether Dickinson was celebrating the "exclusivity" of poetry (and therefore of possibility). Is the persona of the poem implying that the tallness of the chambers, the impregnability of the "house", the doors that need permission for entry....are only for those who engage in-THIS (now I love this word!)- this occupation: the occupation of writing, of reading poetry? Is Paradise only for those who are invited?

How timely, too, that I read the poem in conjunction with watching the film, Elysium. Is the persona saying that the joys of possibility and the everlasting roof  (very similar to the structures of the satellite of Elysium, exclusively made for those who can afford it) are only for those who are invited, for those who do "this" work (those who are privileged to appreciate language...perhaps the same people who are privileged in general)?

Very explosive stuff.

Which brings me to the question: Is possibility restricted? Is there a ticket for possibility?

And here is where I digress. While it is tempting to conclude that Dickinson celebrates exclusivity, elitism, the ivory tower, as Whitman celebrates the least common denominator, I see the nature of possibility not in the domain of exclusivity (a few versus the many) but in the private struggle of any individual.

All are invited. That is possibility. We know it as a truth that any worthwhile thing is achieved with *some* work (hard work, in fact). And where is where I believe Dickinson's persona is coming from. The persona already describes her hands as narrow. She acknowledges this, humbly. And yet, with work (with occupation, *this*), she opens them wide to gather Paradise.

For those who are invited and for those who heed the invitation, Possibility is Paradise. But it is not inherited, it is not a given. It requires the scaling of chambers of Cedar, it requires knocking on the door. It requires occupation. And even with narrow hands, one may gather the numinous. And that, for me, is poetry.